Sidney h



(No Model.)

$. H. SHORT.

TROLLEY FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

No. 457,015. I Patented Aug. 4, 1891.

THE CHRIS FEIUlS cm, runro-umo., WASHINGTON, n. c.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SIDNEY H. SHORT, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE SHORT ELECTRICRAILXVAY COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

TROLLEY FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 457,015, dated August4, 1891.

Application filed March 29, 1890- Serial No. 345,867. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SIDNEY H. SHORT, of Cleveland, in the county ofCuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Trolleys for Electric Railways; and I do hereby declarethe following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, suchas will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same.

My invention has reference to improvements in trolleys for electricrailways in which an overhead conductor arranged parallel to andextending along the line, of travel is employed. In such railways thereis arrz'tnged on the motor-car, ordinarily upon the roof of the same, along lever, capable of swinging in a vertical plane, the upper end ofwhich carries a contact roller or brush or shoe, which bears upon theunder side of the line conductor, and a spring or springs, acting upontheshort arm of this lever, tends to hold the contact device mounted atthe end of the long arm in firm contact with the line conductor. Theline conductor itself is ordinarily stretched between insulatorssuspended from span-wires, which cross the line of travel at rightangles and are supported above theline conductor by poles mounted oneach side of the road. It often happens that the contact devices,whether they are rollers, brushes, or shoes, leave the line conductorand the trolley-lever, to which they are secured, impelled by theactuating-spring, is suddenly swung upward and rises to a verticalposition with its free end above the span-wires. If this happen, thetrolley-arm carried by the rapidly-moving car strikesa hard blow to thespan-wire, and either the latter or the trolleyarm itself breaks,causing great trouble and delay in the car-services; and it is theobject of my invention to overcome this difficulty by the arrangement ofdevices for preventing the trolley-arm either from rising above thespan-wires, or, if allowed to rise a short distance above the same, tobe arrested in an inclined position, from which it will be gentlydepressed by the span-wires without injury either to the latter or thetrolley-arm itself. This result I accomplish by the use of an elasticbuffer-such as a dash-pot-arranged to render the upward movement of thetrolley-arln beyond the line-wire very slow, and to arrest such movementeither below the span-wire or before the trolley-arm has risen at adangerous inclination above the same, all of which will more fullyappear from the following detailed description,with reference to theaccompanyingdrawing, which forms a part ofthis specification, audinwhich I have illustrated a side elevation of myimproved trolley inoperative relation to an overhead line conductor and span-wire.

To the roof 1 of an electric motor-car is secured a base-plate 2, fromthe center of which rises a block 3, and upon a vertical swivelpinprojecting from the same, as indicatedin dotted lines at 4, is pivoted astandard 5, from the lower end of which extends the horizontal arm 6,carrying apin 7 at its free end. The trolley-arm 8 is a lever pivoted tothe upper end of the standard 5 at 9, so as to be capable of swinging ina vertical plane. The

long-arm of the trolley-leverextends upwardly toward the line conductor10 and carries at its upper end a contact wheel, shoe, or

brush 11, bearing upon the line conductor, and a rope or chain 12extends from the troliley-lever down to the car, by means of which thelever may be-pulled down when the trolley must be reversed for a returntrip. The short arm of the trolley-lever has secured at its free end bya pin 13 a helical spring '14, the other end of which is secured to thepin 7 on the horizontal arm 6, which extends from the standard 5.

The tendency of this spring is to pull the short arm of thetrolleyllever downwardly, thereby raising the long arm of the lever andeffecting good contact between the wheel, shoe, or brush 11 with theline conductor. The line conductor 10 is stretched between insulators15, one of which only is shown in the drawing, and each insulator issuspended from a span-wire 16, supported above the line conductor byposts 17 17 and crossing the same ordinarily at right angles.

The construction so far described is substantially like that nowordinarily employed, and it will be seen that if by accident, asfrequently happens, the contact 11 should leave the line conductor, thetrolley-lever 8 would be thrown up to a vertical position, or verynearly so, and would thus be elevated above the line of the span-Wire16, and if the car is at that time running the trolley-arm will strikethe span-wire a heavy blow and either one or the other will be destroyedor severely injured. To avoid this danger I employ the followingarrangement: To the post 5 is secured a hollow vessel 18, the same beingin efiect a cylinder, the axis of which is the arc of a circle describedabout the pivot-point 9 as a center. This curved cylinder is open at oneend 19, and is closed at the other end, and is there provided with avalve 20, openinginteriorly. This valve may be of any description-such,for instance, as an ordinary fiat valve of leather or soft rubber. Tothe short arm of the trolley-lever 8, near the end thereof, is securedat a point 21 a rod 22, which is also curved upon the arc of a circledescribed about the pivotal point 9 as a center, and to the free end ofthis red is secured a piston 23, which snugly fits, but withoutperceptible friction, the interior of the curved cylinder 18, and thelength of the piston-rod 22 is such that when the trolley-arm is in suchposition that the contact Wheel or brush 11 bears upon the lineconductor the forward end of the piston is about to enterinto thecylinder 18. It will now be seen that when the contact 11 comes toaportion of the line-Wire more elevated than the rest, as frequentlyhappens, the spring 14, acting upon the short arm of the trolley-lever,will elevate the long arm of said lever and thus maintain the con tact,and during this operation the piston will fairly enterinto the cylinderand slightly compresstheairconfinedtherein. Theslight-movement requiredfor maintaining the contact does, however, not compress the air withinthe cylinder to any considerable extent, so that the upward movement ofthe long arm of the trolley-lever for a short distance is notperceptibly impeded by the cylinder and piston, which togetherconstitute what is known in the art as a dash-pot. The automaticadjustment of the contact to the slightly-varying elevations of theline-wire is therefore quite prompt, it being understood that thedownward movement of the long trolley-arm is effected with ease, sincethe inwardly-opening valve 20 keeps the air-pressure on both sides ofthe piston about uniform. If, however, the contact 11 shouldautomatically leave the line conductor, the trolley-arm will be forcedup toward the position indicated in dotted lines by the spring 14; butby reason of the considerable compression of the air in the dash-potwhich now takes place, this up ward movement will be very gentle, andwill be so limited that the trolley-arm will barely, if at all,riseabove the line of the span-wire, and if it should rise above the same itwill still be inclined at such angle that when it strikes the span-wireit will, by the movement of the car, he gradually forced down withoutinjury either to itself or to the span-wire. From its elevated positionabove the line conductor the trolley-arm can at all times be pulled downwith ease by means of the rope or chain 12, since, as has been statedabove,

the valve 20 of the dash-pot opens inwardly.

It will be clear that I am not confined to the use of a dash-potconstructed and arranged precisely in the manner shown and described,since an elastic buffer of any other description may be substitutedtherefor; nor am I confined to any other specific detail ofconstruction, since all this may be varied considerably without in anyway or manner deviating from the fundamental idea of my invention.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a trolley for electric railways, the combination of aspring-actuated lever carrying rollers or brushes into contact with anoverhead line conductor, with a dash-pot connected with the lever forchecking and limiting the upward movement of the latter, substantiallyas described.

2. In a trolley for electric railways having an overhead lineconductor,-the combination of a spring-actuated contact-lever forcarrying current from the conductor to the motor, with a dash-potconnected with the short arm of the lever, timed, as described, forchecking the upward movement of the long contactarm and limiting thesame below the spanwires of the line conductors, substantially asdescribed.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence oftwo subscribing witnesses.

SIDNEY H. SHORT.

Witnesses A. B. CALHOUN, JOHN C. DOLPH.

